Folding rack



March 5, 1968 J. cALlGlURl 3,371,797

FOLDING RACK Filed May 9, 1966 7 FIG. l

United States Patent O 3,371,797 FOLDING RACK Joseph Caligiuri, Yonkers, N.Y., assignor to Hudson Fixtures Incorporated, a corporation of New York Filed May 9, 1966, Ser. No. 548,490 1 Claim. (Cl. 211-178) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to folding racks for dresses and apparel merchandise and more particularly to a rack that can be folded into a planar or at configuration. The rack is made of tubular elements, having a pair of spaced apart legs and intermediate securing means.

The storage of dress racks in stores is a problem. Unless the racks are foldable or easily dismantled for storage they take up a large amount of valuable door space when not in full use.

It is an object of this invention to provide a dress rack the ends of which may be rotated ninety degrees to produce a flat planar folded rack which can be placed against a flat wall in an upright position.

lt is another object to produce a rack of simple construction.

These and other objects of this invention will become apparent upon reading the following descriptive disclosure of an illustrative embodiment shown in the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the folding rack in open position,

FIG. 2 is a View of the rack in partial folded position,

FIG. 3 is an enlarged section view of one of the swivel sections of the rack, and

FIG. 4 is a section view taken on line 4 4 of FIG. 3 and showing the manner of locking an end stand against rotational movement.

This invention is particularly economically attractive 'because it is of pivoted construction so that it need not be dismantled when stored away. However, the rack may be so constructed that the longitudinal hanger bars loosely pivoted or pivotally mounted on arm portions may be easily removed to produce a support structure that may -be disposed in a true plane to facilitate shipment.

Turning now to the drawing the rack is preferably of tubular or rod steel construction and is provided with a pair of spaced-apart rotatable end supports 11. Each of the end stand or supports 11 are provided with substantially U-shaped footings 12 welded or otherwise tixedly secured to a centrally located steel tube 13.

The top of each of the end supports 11 is provided also with a U-shaped arm 14 substantially similar or even identical to the footings 12. The arm 14, which may be and preferably is of lesser diameter than that of the footing 12. Both footings 12 and the arms 14 are preferably of rod construction but tubular construction is operable.

A tube 15 is welded or otherwise fxedly secured to each of the arms 14. The tube 15 is dependingly located in the central area of said arms. The diameter of arm tube 15 is substantially that of the footing tu-be 13 as shown in FIG. 3.

An important feature of this invention is the construction of the bridge element 20. The bridge element is preferably of tubular construction and consists of a central longitudinal tube 21 welded or otherwise fiXedly secured at each end to a tubular end piece 22.

The end pieces 22 of the illustrative embodiment are of an internal diameter preferably a little less than or i 3,371,797 Patented Mar. 5, 1968 ICC substantially that of the tubes 13 and 1'5 (FIG. 3). As shown in FIG. 3, an inner tube 23 is disposed through each end piece 22 and is Xedly secured as by spot welding to both the depending tube 15 and the upright tube 13 so the end supports 11 may be rotated as a unit relative to the stationary bridge 20.

Having disclosed the manner of accomplishing rotation of the end supports 11 relative to the bridge element 20, other obvious modifications to accomplish this desired result will now suggest themselves to those skilled in the art but all these modifications are deemed to be within the scope of this invention.

In the illustration shown in the drawing, it may be and preferably is desired to provide means for locking the rotatable stands 11 in place when the rack is in the fully opened position. (FIG. l). One mode of accomplishing this result is to weld a lug 25 to one or both end pieces 22 and provide a threaded aperture therethrough and linearly through the wall of end piece 22. The 4tube 23 which rigidly and xedly secures tubes 13 and 15 and hence the footing 12 and arm 14 together, is provided with a predetermined hole 26 so that when the footing 12 is at a right angle to the bridge 20, the hole 26 in tube 23 is in linear alignment with the threaded aperture of lug 25. A bolt 27 having a threaded shank 28 and a knurled head 29 is adapted to be threaded through the lug 25 and into the aperture 26 of a rotatable end support 11 to prevent an undesirable rotation thereof.

The rack is provided with a pair of hanger bars 30, preferably of tubular construction. Each bar 30` is provided with a pair of round holes of a diameter to receive the round upright arm portions 14X in rotational relationship. The hanger bars 30 preferably are pivotally mounted upon the arms 14X of opposed end supports, but other conventional means of securing them are operable.

The ends of the hanger arms 30 are provided with caps 31 which may be threaded onto the ends of said arms.

I claim:

1. A folding rack for hanger merchandise comprising 'bridge means having a long tube iixedly secured in planar relationship and at a right angle at each end thereof to a short tube; an end support disposed pivotally through each of said short tubes, each of said end supports having a top U-shaped arm and a bottom U-shaped footing having an upright tubular portion xed thereto, said top U- shaped arms eac-h having 4a depending tubular portion fixed thereto; cylindrical bearing means Xedly disposed in and between said upright tube and said depending tube and within a respective short tube of said bridge means; threaded means for locking against rotation a said short tube of said bridge element to said bearing means of said end support, and a pair of suitably apertured hanger bars pivotally mounted upon opposed arms of said supports in parallel spaced apart relationship, whereby said end supports may be simultaneously rotated to cause said folding rack to assume a substantially planar configuration.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,075,320 3/1937 Williams 211-177 XR 2,460,699 2/1949 Long 211-1'82 XR 2,706,563 `4/1955 Larson 211-178 2,852,145 9/1958 Scholz 211--178 3,063,571 11/1962 Stempler 211-177 -RoY D. FRAZIER, Primary Examiner. JOHN PETO, Examiner.

W. D. LOULAN, Assistant Examiner. 

